Despite tragic high-profile shootings in recent years, schools still remain one of the safest places for children.
Despite tragic high-profile shootings in recent years, schools still remain one of the safest places for children.
According to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, only a fraction of youth homicides occur in schools.
The 2013-2014 school year saw 48 school-associated violent deaths across the country — homicides, suicides or police-involved deaths, according to the government’s 2016 “ Indicators of School Crime and Safety ” report released in May 2017.
In terms of student homicides, only 12 of the 1,053 occurred at schools.
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More than 1,600 children committed suicide in 2013 — but only eight occurred at school, according to the report.
That comes out to one student homicide or suicide at school for every 2.8 million students enrolled.
“Over all available survey years, the percentage of youth homicides occurring at school remained at less than 3% of the total number of youth homicides, and the percentage of youth suicides occurring at a school remained at less than 1%,” according to the report.
Arming teachers, even just a “gun-adept” 20% of school staff — per President Trump’s suggestion Thursday morning – could lead to a spike in in-school student deaths, experts said.
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Mo Canady, the executive director for National Association of School Resource officers, instead pushed to have a trained “certified law enforcement officer” at every school.
“Being trained to respond tactically, to take a life in a situation where you can’t do anything otherwise, that’s a tall order,” Canady said.
“It’s one thing to be armed and prepared to defend yourself in the home. It’s entirely different than when you have to go on the offensive in a violent situation, where a person is actively shooting, killing people.”
In an emergency incident, involving people who aren’t properly trained “could cost people their lives,” he said.
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“If the solution to our gun violence crisis was more guns and fewer gun laws we would be the safest country in the world,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand action for Gun Sense in America .
The nonpartisan advocacy group is a branch of Every Town USA alongside the new “ Students Demand Action ” group, created in wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida.
Children as young as 14 were gunned down in the hallways of the Parkland school while teachers and coaches took bullets for their frightened students. The suspected gunman, former student Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 people and injured dozens more before he was eventually detained by local authorities.
Members of the Stoneman Douglas High community have come together in wake of the tragedy, not only to mourn the victims, but to call for change.
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The President responded to those calls Wednesday afternoon by taking aim at gun-free school zones.
“Gun-free zone to a maniac – because they’re all cowards – a gun-free zone is, ‘Let’s go in and let’s attack, because bullets aren’t coming at us,’” Trump said during a listening session with students.
He followed up with a series of tweets Thursday, recommending schools consider giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience – only the best 20%.”
Trump continued: “Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A ‘gun free’ school is a magnet for bad people.”
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But teachers don’t get involved in the education field because they want to be “gun adept,” Watts noted.
“If they did, they’d go into the military or into the police force,” she said.
And if they were uniquely interested in getting such training, even police officers can have surprisingly low accuracy rates when firing at moving targets, she said, noting that putting children in the mix just ups the stakes for additional victims.
“Imagine us trying to turn our teachers and volunteers into sharpshooters,” Watts said. “It’s not only absurd, it’s morally bankrupt.”
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Shanna Peeples, a former National Teacher of the Year, joined scores of others across social media similarly voicing distaste for the President’s latest solution to the gun violence epidemic.
“This is bar none, the worst theory of action I’ve ever heard,” she wrote.
Trump responded to the backlash by defending members of the NRA as “great people and Great American patriots” — a predictable move, Watts said, given the organization shelled out $30 million for his presidential campaign.
“They won’t turn on that investment, and the President won’t forget it,” she said.
